TennCare to be Born Again as TennNoCare
The Tennessee Justice Center sums it up:
Comment on Court of Appeals TennCare Decision
April 12, 2005
Today, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that it is legal for the state to cut 323,000 Tennesseans from the TennCare program. But now the people of Tennessee and their elected representatives must decide if this is the right thing to do.
The focus needs to be on the 323,000 senior citizens, mentally ill people and very sick adults who are about to lose their health coverage. If 323,000 people are cut from the TennCare program, every Tennessean in every city, county and community will feel the effects. Local taxes will go up, and private employers and insurers will have to pay higher rates. No other state in the nation has ever considered returning such a massive amount of federal funding to Washington. No other state has made such massive cuts in healthcare services because the consequences are unthinkable.
You can find out more and send a letter to all 132 TN legislators at the Tennessee Health Care Campaign.
Sharon Cobb provides some very grim details, including the names of some of the people who have apparently received a death sentence from the Democratic Governor.
Currently, TennCare provides coverage to persons ineligble for Medicaid, a program which serves only those in abject poverty. Among those the Governor hopes to cut are people who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, but too poor to purchase private health insurance.
Of course, the mentally ill will be cut. Aren't they always the first to go? My Republican Aunt will be devasted when her mentally ill son is cut loose. Like a lot of red-staters, she is reaping the rewards of her vote.
I'll have more later on this particularly grim chapter of the culture of death. By then, maybe I will have remembered what the hell I was thinking when I left Canada.
